Les Camarades

The bearded Mastroianni atypically appears in the role of slick con artist who appropriates not only the snacks and trust of the illiterate (and thus easily manipulated) workers, but also the entire film. As an openly leftist comedy about serious issues, The Organiser draws heavily on the legacy of neorealism, but it doesn’t allow the setting or the characters’ existential situations to become the focal point of the story. This is characteristic of Italians’ disparagement of an important struggle by means of farcical humour largely based on the characters’ interaction with inanimate objects in the mould of slapstick. A nice example of the balance achieved between social drama and slapstick is offered by one of the last scenes, when the depiction of a tragic event is disrupted by the “professor” blindly groping for his lost glasses. The subdued directing with long shots, camera movements that convey meaning and tragicomic soundtrack prevents the film from going to extremes. Even without a single clearly defined main protagonist (which is the whole proletariat), The Organiser maintains an uncommon balance throughout its two-hour runtime and, with its broad scope, tempers its conscious social criticism by making light of the differences between northern and southern Italy (for comparison, see the seriously tragic Rocco and His Brothers, which also examines the hardships of southerners in the industrial north). 80% (05/12/2013)